Mauritius is destined to become the southern hemisphere’s leading international financial centre within the next decade, affirms the CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial services organisations.

 The comments from Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group, follow the announcement that his company has received an investment banking licence from the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius.

 Mr Green observes: “As a firm, we spent months carrying out comprehensive research into the world’s leading and most established international financial centres in order to launch our investment banking division.

 “After detailed analysis from our in-house teams and external experts, it was definitively and unanimously concluded that Mauritius would be the ideal jurisdiction.

 “Amongst other major influential factors, Mauritius has a strong global reputation, which is founded on the fact that the government is unequivocally pro-business – which is, of course, key to attract foreign investment – and this is reflected in its policies and its procedures.

 “Mauritius also has an enviable reputation for its legally robust framework and its educated and English and French-speaking population.

 “In addition, and importantly for firms that operate globally, it has an internationally convenient time zone, it has good communications systems and world-class infrastructure and accessibility.

 “If this weren’t enough, it is extremely financially competitive compared to other international financial centres.”

 He continues: “If our research reports these findings about Mauritius, it can be reasonably assumed that our global financial brands will also be coming to the same conclusions.  This is especially true at a time when firms like ours are wanting to look beyond the more established centres of international finance due to their rising operational costs and increasing and unnecessary bureaucracy.”

 Mr Green concludes: “With this in mind, I am confident that Mauritius could become the southern hemisphere’s leading international financial centre within the next 10 years.

 “The northern hemisphere’s powerhouse international financial centres such as London, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo will maintain their dominant position in the world for decades to come.

 “However, the southern hemisphere’s international financial centres such as Sydney, Sao Paolo and Johannesburg, will be needing to up their game in order to compete with Mauritius as global financial hubs and to attract international financial services firms.

 “Mauritius, with its financially competitive environment, its infrastructure, and its government’s agility and pro-business approach based on good governance and compliance procedures, is already ahead of the curve as a world-class business destination.”